Using Linux at Northern Michigan University
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Transcript of Using Linux at Northern Michigan University
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Using Linux at Northern Michigan University
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Northern Michigan University
• Regional University• Normal quality
students– Some great– Some struggle
• About 9,000 students and 200 majors
• Have some money
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NMU’s Computers
• Every student gets a laptop– We load them with Java, C++, PuTTY– We haven’t had success with VNC– We may not load them with Linux
• We have a Laboratory– Kinda silly with all the laptops– Great for system admin class
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Advantages of Linux
• Source code available– But it’s huge– Parts are interesting
• System very inspectable– Can see what’s happening inside
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System Admin Class
• Teach Basic Linux Admin– Incoming students typically juniors– Lots of students from CIS, a few from the
town– Assume students don’t know nothin’
• Frustrates some students• Works for others
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Goals of System Admin Class
– Add/del users– Networking (NFS, Samba, YP, net printing)– Compile the kernel– Become YP/NIS server and client– Taste shell and perl programming– Independent learning
– DEBUGGING SKILLS ARE VITAL
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Pride of Ownership
• Everyone gets their own computer
• They install everything on it
• When it breaks, it’s their fault.
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Fences Make Good Neighbors
• Get a firewall between your lab and the world.– Leave access to the departmental server– Deny access to the world– Files are forced to move through the
departmental server
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Teach How to Debug
• Break their computers for them.
• Give a lousy error message.
• Give points for fixing the problems.
• Everyone gets a unique problem set.
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Never Let Students Hack Each Others Computer!!!!!
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The Problem List
Points: 10Task: Fix telnetting to euclid ----Points: 15Task: I cannot ping Euclid ----Points: 5Task: What is your ethernet hardware (mac) address? ----
Task: Fix telnetting to euclid Cause: add "198.110.193.8 euclid euclid.nmu.edu" to /etc/hosts ----Task: I cannot ping Euclid Cause: Add the line 'exit' to the script /etc/rc.d/init.d/network ----Task: What is your ethernet hardware (mac) address? Cause: Just ask
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No Cheating (kinda)
• Don’t let students keep backup copies of /etc
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Grading is Important
• Don’t use a dumb grading scheme.
• If you give points for labs…– Then assignments will be 0% or 100%
• You must use tests and broken-labs too.
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Operating System Class
• Students are seniors.
• Goals are OS algorithms, not too much code.
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Using Kernel Source
• Don’t make them compile kernels.• Do show them code.
– Size– Grep for “stupid”.
• 106 stupids, 32 of the “other” word
– Show easy parts• Old scheduler• Read syscall
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Kernel Size
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Top is Interesting
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Strace is Interesting
• strace /bin/ls– Uses 119 syscalls– Open 21 files!!!!!!– Writes 3 times.
– Goal: Give a real picture for how things work
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Benchmarking
• Easy to make a benchmark
• Time consuming to run them
• Whole class can do one run
• Always experimental error
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Benchmarking Ideas
• Compile time vs RAM
• Read time vs read size– Never get to disk performance
• Which is faster, open or read?
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Independent Study
• Linux inspires kids.
• Source code is available
• Lots of tools
• Linux is new– There are projects to be done.– Can effect the world!
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Linux Benchmarking Project
• Three kids
• Is the kernel bloated and slow?– Compare new and old kernels– Count lines– Use lmbench
• Teacher was interested, too!
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Benchmarking Results
• Experimental Errors Experienced.– Teamwork errors too!
• Email from Linux, Alan Cox, etc.
• Article on Slashdot
• Speech at Argonne National Lab.
• Professional Recognition
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Unexpected Learning
• Army comes to arrest fellow prof– They were very nice people.– Student interest in security soars.– Learning happened– ACS is angry
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Unexpected Learning (cont)
• We shutdown campus.net– And a business in California– Students suddenly interested in our
connectivity– Internet law became interesting too.
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Conclusion
• Good Teaching is good teaching!– Need to be enthused.– Need to be hands-on.– Need to show examples.
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Linux Helps with Teaching
• Showing code examples.
• Inspect a running system